SOME STRANGE MARRIAGE-CUSTOMS 285 



and transferred to the pouches of the youngsters, by whom 

 it is transformed into honey and stored in the combs in 

 the upper region of the hive. At the end of about a 

 fortnight these Httle drudges are allowed a brief respite, 

 during the heat of the day, to emerge into the outer air 

 and gather ideas on the world which is yet to be explored. 

 Soon a measure of freedom is allowed, the indoor work 

 ceases, and each takes up the new and more agreeable 

 task of gathering pollen, and after a few days of this the 

 more responsible task of gathering nectar is undertaken, 

 which is continued till death ends one of the most crowded, 

 surely, of existences. Such as are born near " swarming- 

 time " may have the good fortune to take part in the 

 exodus and the settling down in the new home, and some 

 may taste yet other moments of excitement, but they 

 are moments only. The worker bee knows no leisure for 

 the improvement of her mind and morals. She needs 

 none, for she has neither : she is a creature of routine, 

 a living automaton apparently. Yet there are incidents 

 in this wonderful community which seem too complex 

 to be merely the result of instinct unaided, uninspired, 

 by intelligence albeit of a nebulous kind. 



The worker-bees, it has been remarked, are barren : 

 their reproductive organs are atrophied, and by the 

 decree, not of the queen-mother of the hive, nor of the 

 males, but of their own caste. In spite of the fact that 

 they are incapable of producing offspring, they, and 

 they alone, determine who shall undertake this task ; 

 and they decree the fate that awaits those thus appointed 

 when they can no longer fulfil this purpose. 



When the queen, waxing old, and waning in fecundity, 

 lays fewer and fewer eggs, and these only producing 

 males, they take silent note of the fact, and at the 



